The aftermath of the unrest in Turkey

Tear gas as a dangerous weapon

THE mass anti-government demonstrations that have rocked Turkey over the past month are dying down and only now is the full horror of police abuse against protestors beginning to emerge. Human-rights groups say the use of tear gas as a weapon marks a new chilling trend among Turkey’s notoriously nasty riot police.

Hasan Kilicgedik, a thirty-year-old Kurd, was among the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets in protest of the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his increasingly authoritarian ways. It was on June 16th somewhere near Taksim Square (pictured) where the unrest first erupted. Riot police started dousing him and fellow protestors with teargas. “Then amid the smoke I saw one come at me with his tear gas launcher and fire it directly at my head” Mr Kilicgedik recalled. “The gas canister hit my brow and cracked my skull and eye-socket, look,” he said pointing at an X-ray of his skull. “It’s a miracle that I survived.”

Berkin Elvan, a 14-year-old boy and Lubna al Lami, a 34-year-old Palestinian tourist who got ensnared in the violence may not be so lucky. Both remain in critical condition after being hit by teargas canisters. At least 8,000 people were wounded, eleven blinded by rubber bullets and four others killed (two from live bullets and two of heart attacks triggered by the inhalation of teargas) during clashes with the police. Scores have reportedly being hit by teargas canisters as a result of police taking deliberate aim at them. Emma Sinclair Webb of Human Rights Watch, a New York based watchdog group, confirmed that the police “had transformed teargas from its function as a means to disperse a crowd into a lethal weapon”.

Despite the abuse, not a single head has rolled, says Ms Sinclair Webb. Not only that, Mr Erdogan appears to be egging the police on. Speaking before a graduating class of the police academy on June 26th, Mr Erdogan said the police had “successfully carried out their duties within the confines of the law” and “passed a very important test of democracy”. According to Mr Erdogan they have “written a epic of heroism”.

Meanwhile, allegations of sexual harassment under detention are beginning to surface. Take the case of a 25-year-old student who was detained along with 73 others on May 31st even though they were not involved in the protests. The student, who asked not to be identified by name, said she and six other women were locked up by turn in a dark, grimy cell by a “large and evil looking” woman police officer just as they were about to be freed. “She made me take off my clothes, including my underpants but not my bra, then she stuck her hand in my bra and started barking orders to crouch and cough, again and again” the student said. “There is a pattern of women being singled out for abuse,” said Ozlem Durucan, a lawyer who is acting on the student’s behalf.

Arzu Demir, a left-wing journalist, agrees. She and a woman colleague were subjected to an intrusive body search by a female police officer during a raid on their news agency’s office on June 18th, which lasted for 14 hours. “She locked us in the toilet and felt our breasts and crotches even though the police didn’t have a warrant for our arrests. It was sexual abuse and it was completely unlawful,” Ms Demir fumed.

Human-rights groups say that over a hundred people remain in detention for their alleged role in the events. Never mind that the demonstrations were largely peaceful; they started off as a small sit-in to stop a government-backed development plan in a park near Taksim Square.

Mr Erdogan insists the protestors are “terrorists” acting in concert with a global network of western governments, media outlets and financiers bent on overthrowing his government. The Istanbul Security Directorate appeared to corroborate this view when it filed a 190-page report with the prosecutor’s office allegedly blaming, among others, The Economist for the protests.

The Turkish Journalists Union says that at least 28 journalists were wounded (including by gas canisters), 22 were beaten and 18 others detained during the unrest. “I kept shouting ‘I am a journalist’ and waving my press card,’ said Eylem Duzyol, a woman journalist, who was kicked and clubbed by a group of riot police for no apparent reason. “Admitting I was a journalist made things worse.”

In previous comments I have said that Tayyip Erdogan was within his rights to employ force to quell the disturbances and the protesters. However I certainly would not condone or support the methods reported here in this article, they are as brutal as they are barbaric, and totally unacceptable in any society which professes to be civilised. The Turkish government should urgently investigate these reports carefully, and punish those police officers found to have violated the laws. To permit law enforcement officers to act outside the boundaries of the law and with impunity would set a very bad precedent, and in fact ultimately lead to a disrespect for the law and law enforcement officers which could precipitate the eventual breakdown of law and order in itself, I am certain that is not what any government sets out to achieve.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is neither Abraham Lincoln nor George Washington but just a puppet who cannot even make an impromptu speech without his prompter. During his term, he increased his wealth to nearly $1B by letting his supporters having main government bids, oppressed or bought the owners of mass media, thus fooled his people with lies for 11 years, he sold profiting state enterprises, created scandalous lawsuits against the high ranking army officers to ridicule them in the eyes of people of Turkey, divided his people with "50% of my voters are already mine" speeches, simply disregarded the voice of his own people, traveled to the USA after 50 Turkish citizens were blown up in a blast in Reyhanli Turkey, traveled to Tunisia etc while leaving HIS VIOLENT POLICE FORCE behind as a gendarme to his reign. The fools thinking he is a hero should think twice and read the life and revolutions of the real hero of REPUBLIC OF TURKEY, MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK who is the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln combined for the people of Turkey. While making comparisons, one should be smart and should not dare to compare the politicians which will be deep down and thrown away when the time comes. Disregarding the voice of his people, he is the biggest servant to the century old policy of "divide and rule".

Besides this, it is now quite obvious to everyone, that Erdogan is thinking and behaving more like a small, stubborn child than like a grown up, strong and sensible man. Let's hope the turkish voters will learn that too, despite he's able to control media and by this, part of the public opinion.

The police responsible for the above abuses should be investigated and punished.
Better still the Turks should require compulsory human rights training for all police trainees. If I am not mistaken, they already do.
I am in favour of banning tear gas as it does more harm than good.
I am also opposed to the grounding of aircraft being used by heads of state by other countries when they suspect them of carrying dissidents......oh wait, that was the French, silly me......

The new, must-have fashion feature in Istanbul this fall
will be gas masks--with or without a matching helmet.
In urban camou and pink camou for the ladies.
It will also be seen chic stores in Cairo, Tehran, Islamabad, and Damascus.
Next will be ballistic vests.

"International financiers bent on overthrowing the government" - Why does this sound so familiar? Why does it sound familiar to things that happen with oil-rich countries? And why does it sound familiar to the kind of propaganda that has been going on for the last two decades? Would we ever know the truth - not while the NSA is reading this comment of mine!

R. Tayyip Erdoğan is Abraham Lincoln of Turkey. He is our hero. Before him people couldn't even speak their language. Everybody had tı praise army. But we Turkish people saw the realties. laik Kemalist elites always made cruelties agains poor people. However Lıncoln made war agains racism for human being Tayyip Erdoğan did the same thing. He has beaten army elites and buraucratic oligarcy. He collected millions of people even only one Word. Because we like him. We will always be with him in the table or in the frontier. Anatolia found big real leader. Whatever western people or turkish elites say millions of Turkish people will follw Tayyip Erdoğan. Tayyip Erdoğan will be winner of the game. This time you cant determine games rules. Because force and belief spoils trap everywhere. Everyone will see it I think.

In the "New Conservative Turkey" - built over a decade with full political and economic support of the West - nobody has ANY kinds of rights anymore. People simply don't matter in the "New Conservative Turkey". Sad but true...

i am really suprised when i see such articles by A.Z. all of the last elections the economist and its correspondent A.Z. fully supported when some people raised their voices that They , i mean Akp and Erdoğan, use the democracy to get what they want and to achieve their agenda. they are pretending what they actually are not. however, the ecnomist continued to praise the akp and Erdoğan; even they showed Erdoğan as hero , for he as an ''islamist'' manages to get in tüne with democracy; while many people wrote that he is not a democrat but authoritarian person. so everything comes onto the surface; and the ecnomist plays the naive.
It is too late; and when i see such articles, the honesty problem with the economist and A.Z. arises inside my mind.

The Police terrorism described here has nothing to do with the military nor the secularists.
This is an organisation controlled by the Isamist government and manned by hand picked supporters of the AKP.